Devoted
by legendarytobes
Summary: AU - Second installment in the Crusade 'Verse. Kal-El and Chloe are adjusting to their new relationship and finishing off high school when spiked Gatorade causes a certain Kryptonian's emotions to run rampant.
1. Chapter 1

**1**

"Yeah, Chlo, you say that now, but you're not the one with the B+ on his record. I mean, who cares if I have an thorough understanding of the themes of _The Portrait of Dorian Gray _. I mean, it's a little gay, anyway," Clark said as he pulled open the door to The Torch for her.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Them's the ropes. I'm just smarter than you."

"And who's the one who'd fail Calculus without me?" He replied, watching as the door shut behind him. He waited a beat and then stood straighter than he had before. "I loathe that."

She shrugged. "You know you do a mean 'Clark.'"

Kal-El rolled his eyes back. "You have witnessed nothing. Make haste and find me a girl with long raven lockes. I can act moronically for you."

"Make haste?"

"I may have read a bit of Shakespeare lately," he conceded.

"You know, Clark wasn't that bad."

"You cannot lie. I was there. It was most humiliating."

Chloe laughed. "I've seen you in Mickey Mouse ears. Falling down once or twice in front of Lana can't have been that bad."

"I would prefer the felt," he groused.

Chloe sighed. "Really, you...he, never mind, you weren't so bad. Besides, all boys are idiots. It's a scientific fact."

"He was moreso."

"Well, you do have superior taste in women."

"Gentlemen prefer blondes," he riposted, grinning. "I still cannot believe this. I know that I requested the Advanced Literature class. I understand that it came with summer reading and a mandatory book report. I do not understand how I could do more poorly than some humans."

"Yes, we're morons, cockroaches before you're almighty intellect," she sing-songed, clicking on her computer. "You're just jealous because I did better."

"I am not jealous. We are not in competition."

"We're in competition, buddy. We're competing for Valedictorian. We're competing for best articles, I'll win that one. Hell, we can compete for who has better superpowers."

"I can fly."

"I can cure comas, get in line."

Kal-El crossed his arms over his chest. "I merely question the objectivity of Mrs. Miller. It was an excellent analysis."

"You're going to be Supreme Leader of Earth. Do you need that A?"

Kal-El pursed his lips. "I fail to find the humor in that."

"You know you're not really going to take anything over," she corrected. "If you're not going to joke a little about your epic destiny."

"I control nothing. You have the all the access to my weapons of mass destruction."

"Less CNN for you buddy but if you'd like to topple the current regime..."

"No, I believe in democracy," Kal-El said, chuckling. "You've made your own messes."

"Uh-huh. I don't know why you're upset. If Wilde wasn't your speed, you could have chosen to do Shelley."

Kal-El sat down across from her. "I do not care for _Frankenstein _."

"What's not to like? A little windmill fire, a little grunting and bolts in the neck."

"I have read the novel several times," he corrected. "The creature is erudite, self-taught, and ruthless. Hollywood has done him a disservice."

"So no bride with Marge Simpson hair?"

"No," he replied, softly. "There was one. She also chose self-immolation rather than be with him." Kal-El said nothing for a while and skimmed through his email beside her.

Chloe sighed. Kal-El was a work in progress. She could never quite tell what she might say that would wound him. Not intentionally, of course, but just because of him being who he was. She looked back up from her work and noticed that he was staring at the watch on her wrist. He'd offered to take it back from her. Hell, he'd offered, in his overly eager way, to take her to Cartier's and get a watch suitable for her.

Chloe was also working on teaching Kal-El that she didn't want anything from him at all save his company. She still received gifts, despite the protests. This morning it had been coffee literally brought from Colombia. Still, of all her gifts, Chloe loved his watch the most. Their lives were weird, which was an understatement. As far as Smallville was concerned, Clark Kent was still the slightly bumbling, but no longer coltish, guy he'd always been. He missed Lana and he still worked with his parents on the farm. Chloe Sullivan had gotten "lucky" and was living in The Talon on her own, free from parental rules.

Chloe and Clark were still best friends. That hadn't changed. She and he had been musketeers with Pete since middle school, and that was that.

Except everything had changed. She and Kal-El kept a penthouse in Metropolis and had been living together for almost a month. They spent their time out of school in the city and, at least two nights a week, in New York, meeting with one of the most brilliant men on the planet. There were nights where Kal-El would take her to London or to Johannesburg because he could.

She tried, again, to make it once a week. She didn't want him to spoil her also because if she got used to, she might not be that trustworthy counsel he so desperately needed.

But the world saw Clark and Chloe but what there truly was was Kal-El and his lover/counsel. It was so odd. She was still the girl she'd been and she wasn't. She still wanted to make The Torch excel, still was gunning to be Valedictorian. She still fell into some of that high school bullshit, but there was a whole other level. She was trying to figure out her power, trying to figure out who she was now, who she was to Kal-El.

And she was trying to help him.

He didn't know how to do what he'd been charged with and how would he?

Who else was supposed to just save humanity.

And he was so lost sometimes. He could ape being who he'd been, but she could see the strain in him, the hunch in his shoulders at the end of the day. She wondered if Clark had always felt that way, too. If he'd always felt like his life were an act. Chloe'd seen the same slump and exhaustion on Clark's face, in his green eyes. She bet he had, although she'd never know for sure. She couldn't bear to ask Kal-El.

He talked about before often, but mostly derisively. He was still in a fierce competition with who he'd been, with the favored son.

Kal-El couldn't really travel the world, couldn't find his place in it, until he fixed his home. They were growing into each other slowly. He adored Virgil and there was that paternal affection he desperately craved there, but he needed something more.

Chloe sighed as Kal-El started typing notes for the piece she'd assigned on the new faculty. He didn't even look like Clark, not when you were looking for it. The clothes were different, darker and no longer primary. His posture was stiffer. His eyes the wrong color. But no one noticed, because no one had noticed Clark much in the first place.

The Kents had planned it that way.

"Can I help you Sull-I-Van?"

She startled and knocked her mug. It would have spilled coffee into her lap but Kal-El was already there, stopping it. She grinned. "You're so useful, ALF."

"I try," he riposted. "Are you sure you are alright? You seem off."

"I'm fine. Have you thought about maybe meeting Martha at The Talon this time?"

Kal-El narrowed his eyes. "Metropolis is far nicer. There is more to do."

"It's not home."

"Sull-I-Van, I..." Then he stopped, his head quirking stiffly, like a bird's.

"Kal-El?"

He stiffened and blurred away, his parting words sending a shiver down her spine and her hand reaching for her cell:

"I hear shots from the locker room."


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

Sirens.

Chloe had grown up in Metropolis for over a decade. She'd never heard them half as much as she heard them now. There was an ambulance waiting to take Coach Quigley to the emergency room as well as Sheriff Adams's car. Kal-El had gotten there in time to keep Coach Quigley alive, but one of the gunshots had ricocheted, causing the bathroom mirror to shatter. The shards had cut into his face and he needed the stitches.

Chloe maneuvered easily through the crowd. School was out now and probably wouldn't be back in session for at least a day. Unfortunately, there was a protocol for that since a student went on a rampage at least once a semester. Chloe stiffened at the thought. What if she...

Her mother was already insane. What if Chloe could snap and start hurting people to. Her ability was something she'd mostly used to help, to heal herself or Kal-El. But she had enough strength in her to seriously injure someone else, to cow Kal-El. Maybe they were worried about the wrong one going rogue.

"Chlo, are you sure you're okay?" Kal-El asked, fully playing Clark.

She nodded. "Nice save, by the way. Do you know what happened?"

He shrugged and wandered away from the witnesses. "I do not. I have never been familiar with the football team. It was never something we were permitted to do, despite Clark's wishes. I suppose that sometimes humans snap."

Chloe frowned at him. "You don't believe that, do you?

He shook his head. "In this town, one most often assumes that meteor rocks are involved, that it is one of the infected." Kal-El squeezed her shoulder. "Please do not take offense at that. I do not regard you in that group."

She nodded again, although more stiffly than before. "I don't think of you like Darth Vader so we're even. You were saying?"

"Yes, well, if he were an infected, he would have used his abilities and not such a generic manner of vengeance."

"Well, we can start investigating. Maybe he was mad at Quigley for some reason. That does happen. People snap in towns without radioactive space rocks as well."

Kal-El sighed. "I understand that. I do not know how you would rectify such a thing."

Chloe paused at that. "You don't have to stop everything, Kal-El. Humans will still be humans at the end of the day. You do great. Coach Quigley would be dead if you hadn't saved him."

"I understand that. I...I should contemplate less. However, I do believe that there is something more occurring here."

"In Smallville there usually is," she replied. "This does seem like a better use of my time than the Glee Club article."

"Quite. I suggest that we start with a cursory review of the player's medical history and move on from there."

"Thinking like me already, Kal-El?"

He winked. "I try not to think like a lower being."

"Who has an A in English," she reminded.

"It was rigged," he defended, quirking his head when a familiar flash of red hair appeared in the parking lot. Chloe watched and smiled to herself at the expression on Kal-El's face. There was so much hope there, so much naivete. That was the boy she'd seen staring in wonder at the Epcot fireworks. "Mom!"

Chloe looked around. There were quite a few students and faculty around. Kal-El was still bound to play his part. She hoped it wouldn't throw Martha too badly.

"Ka...Clark, are you okay?" Martha came up to him and started to soothe his bangs back. Quietly, she added, "We need to go some place private, don't we?"

He nodded, "Sure mom. The Torch is still open."

Martha, who Chloe realized over the last month, must have been the one who'd facilitated Clark's identity as he'd grown up, started talking just a little too loud. "Baby, I heard and I was so worried. I'm just glad you were there but you should have called someone instead. I just...it gives me a heart attack, Clark." Martha continued the worried mother hen role perfectly until they were inside the locked office. She didn't drop her arm from Kal-El's shoulder, but she did drop the large, worried eyes.

"You are okay, aren't you, Kal-El?"

He nodded. "It was only a shotgun."

Martha offered him a small smile and patted his shoulder. "I know. But I don't like hearing that you got shot. I still remember when the two of you scraped knees."

Chloe eyed Kal-El throughout the exchange. Martha was trying. She was slowly trying to differentiate between Clark and the boy she'd found. Chloe wondered if the other woman had come to think of Kal-El and Clark as brothers, as the oddest and most unconventional pair of siamese twins in history. It was how Chloe saw it sometimes.

Kal-El smiled. "I am fine."

Martha nodded again and, realizing that she was still fawning over him, dropped her hand and took a step back. "That's good. Does anyone actually want to tell me what happened?"

"What you have heard is what came to pass. It was not, as far as I could discern, Kryptonite-related. I felt no ill effects and there were no powers involved," Kal-El replied.

Martha considered this. "But you think something else is happening?"

"We're working on a few theories," Chloe replied. "You have to go the office, don't you?"

"Yes, there's an incident report to be filed and I'm supposed to promise to take 'Clark' home and to the station for any additional questioning."

"Cool. Kal-El's free to go. It's not like I have any leads that need superfast investigations."

"Good then. Besides, I needed to have you sign some things Kal-El. There's a new set of inoculations we have to file."

"Whatever you should need, mother."

Chloe shook her head. "Where does all that stuff come from anyway? His records are really good, except the adoption one."

Martha smirked. "I almost finished Met U law. I have a few people I can go to when I need to. Do you think you're the only Metropolis girl with multiple sources?"

Chloe shook her head. "I guess I did."

Kal-El shifted a little on his feet. "Shall we go?"

Martha nodded. "Chloe do you want to come?"

Kal-El looked to her hopefully as well and she sighed. The two of them used her often as a buffer. One day, if this was actually going to work, they'd have to learn to be alone with one another, without either she or Clark between them.

If it were possible.

"Not right now. I think you guys should go. Have fun. The sheriff's station is a happening place in this town."

"Yes...I...we shall do that," Kal-El said and she reached out to squeeze his hand. Evil witches and alien Fortresses he could handle. Mothers were hard.

"You two can make a day of it. Police report and a movie," she joked.

"No, I do not think those go together," he offered. "Although, that does remind me. Mother, would you like to do lunch the next time in New York. Dr. Swann was asking about you."

"Kal-El!"

He smirked. "Not like that. I think that he is interested in what I was like when I was younger. What I remember is fuzzy at best."

Martha nodded. "I remember a lot. It was very vivid. We can work something out."

"Or, you know, we can stave off the New York stuff and we could do just pizza here. Does Jonathan want to come?"

"You are usually more subtle, Sull-I-Van," Kal-El replied.

"I was just saying. You could at least ask him too."

Martha frowned apologetically up at her son. "I don't think that's such a good idea right now."

Kal-El stiffened. "Of course it is not. He is irrelevant anyway. If the farm should need something-"

Chloe sighed. If he were less stubborn and defensive about everything, his life would be easier. "Kal-El."

"Mother," he started. "I do not believe the sheriff is a patient woman. Shall we egress?"

She nodded and grabbed her purse. "Of course."

Chloe sighed once more as she watched them walk out the door. They were side by side and, just once, she noticed Martha almost reach out to his shoulder and then drop it.

Baby steps indeed.

"So there was coffee?" Chloe asked hopefully as they walked across the football field. The jockstraps were in full force pounding into each other.

Kal-El followed her gaze and sneered at the display. "Primitive."

"You all didn't have the NFL on Krypton?"

"Hardly. As far as my father has informed me, academic pursuits were favored. A strong body valued but academic competition was bloodsport there."

"Sounds like a place after my own heart and don't be avoid-y. How did it go?"

"We had coffee. I even acquiesced and we did so at The Talon. I offered for Metropolis, but she declined."

"And it was fun?"

"I would not use that word, exactly," he replied. "It was awkward but there were enjoyable moments. It is different than it was for us."

"'Us' you and Martha or 'us' with you and Clark?"

"The latter. She is concerned and she is considerate, yes. There is the maternal, but she is more forthright as well." Kal-El eyed her with something akin to horror. "My mother can be sardonic."

"She jokes with you?"

"We are trying. She treats me as an adult, which, under Krytponian law, I actually am. We talked a lot about the research I am assisting Virgil with. It was eye opening."

"You just realized Martha Kent had a life and brain before she met your dad."

"Jonathan," Kal-El growled in correction. "I know that she is brilliant and I knew that she had attended if not finished law school. I did not expect her to be so...I do not know. I am not a child but how is it that my mother has a personality I did not see?"

"You understand the irony in that coming from you?" Chloe asked as they sat down on the bleachers.

"I do. It is just that we are trying to find our place. Whatever it becomes, if it sustains, it is not the same as it was but not because of me."

"Well, you are new."

"No, I meant that Martha Kent and Kal-El can converse as something more akin to equals. I assume there may one day be maternal concern."

Chloe'd seen Martha glancing worriedly at him despite the steel skin. The maternal concern was there now. "That's good. Little things, right?"

"Precisely," he replied, keeping his voice low. "Sull-I-Van, must we be here? I was going to suggest interviewing Quigley in his office. I have no interest in athletics."

"You are so not Kansasian," she replied. "_ Clark _, you're the sports reporter. You have to go out into the field to see your subjects."

"Can they even answer coherent questions?"

"Some," she replied. "Look, come with me to get Quigley's attention and then we'll go laugh at the jocks in the office, 'k?"

He nodded and walked with her to the water cooler. "Alright, but I could ascribe the quotes for the pre-game article now. 'We're trying real hard and we've got an awesome team this year and everyone will give 110%.' They do realize that is a physical impossibility, do they not?"

"Probably not," she chirped. "God, can they take a break yet?"

Kal-El shrugged. "I do not know. How many ways are there to pound into someone." He sighed and filled up a cup of Gatorade. Chloe wrinkled her nose at the red coloring. She preferred green, herself. "Would you like a cup, Sull-I-Van?"

She shook her head. "I'm so gonna pass." He nodded and took a sip and then, he surprised her by draining all of it in superspeed. "Kal-El?"

He looked back up at her and he seemed slightly dazed. "What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," he replied, giving her a grin that was slightly Stepford. "I am quite well, indeed."


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

Kal-El was surprisingly quiet for the rest of the day. Chloe still marveled at the differences between Clark and Kal-El. Comparing them wasn't completely fair since they weren't the same man, but, in a weird way, they also were. Clark was quiet by nature, shy and retiring. She wasn't sure now if that was because he was always naturally thoughtful or because he'd been so afraid to be involved with anyone because of his differences. Pete had always been a born social networker, someone with a forceful personality. It was easy to be swept up in him, just as Clark had with the run for sophomore class president. Chloe knew she could be a whirlwind. She'd bossed Clark around since the first day of meeting him.

She wondered what would have become of him if she and Pete hadn't sought him out, if he'd continued fading into the woodwork.

Kal-El was not Clark. He was not quiet by nature. In the beginning, when they'd been struggling through Paris, a lot of that had been in the form of one edict or another. But he enjoyed talking, was a coyly droll. He could be quite the chatterbox at The Torch. And yet, ever since the quick interview with Quigley, he'd been quiet.

And he'd had the goofiest smile on his face. It reminded her of all the times she'd caught Clark Lana-pining. She knew how Kal-El felt about her. He had told her plainly only a few days after he'd, ahem, come into the world. He slept with her every night. Hell, he was rarely out of her sight. Not that she minded. She was quickly growing used to their unconventional partnership. But, although he told her he loved her daily (and usually bathed in a literal afterglow), he didn't stare at her. He didn't get all soppy about it.

He knew she was working through her feelings and he was giving her space.

Space usually didn't mean that he stared at her for hours on end.

"Kal-El?"

"Yeah?"

She blinked at that. They were back in Metropolis. There was no need for him to play "Clark," to be informal.

"Are you sure you're feeling alright? You've been really quiet."

He nodded and sighed. It made him sound vaguely like a thirteen year old girl. "Perfect."

"Uh-huh. You haven't complained once about the football team article I made you write or about the lack of decent leads."

"What's there to complain about? You asked and I did it. I'd do it again."

She frowned. "Well, I do like that respect for the Lady Editor vibe, don't get me wrong, but you usually argue with me more. You know? Superior overlord and lowly human?"

"I don't sound like that do I?" He asked, his voice still distant. "You're perfect."

"Okay, that's nice. Kal-El, did you hit your head today by any chance?"

"No, if I'd done that, something would be dented, Chlo."

Chloe stilled. "What did you say?"

"I said there'd be a hole in something. Invulnerable, right?"

No that wasn't what he'd said. Kal-El never called her 'Chlo,' except occasionally in The Talon or a crowded lunchroom. It was part of the game they were playing. But here, in their home, she was Sull-I-Van and she loved that endearment. "Kal-El?"

"What?" He asked, still staring dreamily at her.

"I...you're acting off."

He frowned. "Why?"

"Because you don't mind football. Because you haven't said anything all day, because you called me 'Chlo.'"

"But you like that. We used to do it and it makes you smile."

"But you're not Clark."

Kal-El's frown deepened and she felt suddenly like she'd kicked a puppy. "But you like him better. Besides, it's stupid for me to act so different."

"_ Differently _," the editor in her corrected.

"Whatever. I don't have to speak like some guy from _The Day the Earth Stood Still _. It's pointless to make myself more alien, isn't it?"

"I never said you were."

"But I can be better for you, Chlo."

She swallowed. "Kal-El, maybe we should skip school just the once and go to see Dr. Swann."

That made him angry. He threw his napkin down onto the kitchen table. "So I'm sick now? Do you know how crazy that sounds?"

"You're not acting like yourself."

"It's all a matter of definition, isn't it? I can be like Clark. That's who you want and I'm devoted enough to you to give you him."

Chloe gulped. She didn't like the way that last part sounded. "You don't...I don't want a lie, Kal-El. We're honest with each other."

"Painfully so," he replied. "You don't love me, but I can make you. I can be anything you need me to be."

"I need you to come with me to New York to see Dr. Swann then. I need...something's not right."

Kal-El shook his head. "Something's wrong at school and that's more important. It's not just with the coach. Three of the players got into a fist fight in the locker room. I overheard it."

"What?"

"The captain accused two of the others of looking at his girl."

"So?"

"He went after them with the emergency fire hose. Chloe, it might not be meteor rocks, but there's something off. Don't you think keeping them from snapping is more important than you not liking my change of heart."

"Change? You're trying to be someone you're not."

"I'm trying to be who I was to make you happy," he replied, sadly. "There's a difference. I would be anything you wanted."

"Then be you."

Kal-El stood and shook his head. There was a flicker of movement and the kitchen was clean, her plates cleared. "I can't, Chlo, because you don't really want me." He smiled and it was one of the saddest thing she'd ever seen. "No one does."

With that, he was gone.

Kal-El didn't come home to Metropolis for the rest of the night and it scared her. She called Dr. Swann and he hadn't seen or heard from Kal-El. He was a dismayed as she was. Apparently, Kal-El had promised to send him an evaluation of some of his latest research, a proof of his proofs, so to speak. He'd let the deadline pass and Kal-El never did that. Chloe was up at five to drive to Smallville, but it wasn't school she ended up at.

The farm was busy now and she should have known how odd the Kents were, but she'd never pieced it together. She was from Metropolis. What did she know about farming. It had never occurred to her that a farm needed more hands than Mr. Kent and a fifteen year old. There were at least three men, all a little younger than Clark's dad, although not by much, working on the tractor. Chloe sighed and pulled her beetle up to the drive way. Easing out of her car, she walked up the steps and into the kitchen, relaxing a little when she found Martha was the only one home.

"Chloe? Aren't you going to be late for school?"

"I'm not too worried about it," she admitted. "Martha, have you heard from Kal-El?"

"Not since two days ago at coffee. Why?" Her eyes widened. "Where is he?"

"Martha-"

"Where is he, Chloe? He didn't go to the Fortress, did he?"

"Why?"

"Because it's not good for him. I've seen the scar, too, Chloe. I don't want that thing near my...near Kal-El."

"He can't access it without me," she replied. "He built me in as a failsafe so that, at the end of the day, he has to answer to a human." She laughed bitterly. "Or someone who was once."

"Chloe," Martha warned.

"No, it's fine. That's not important at all. I just...we fought and no one's seen him. I went by The Torch first and he's not there. He didn't come home to our apartment last night. He missed an appointment with Virgil."

"Jor-El hasn't done something, has he? He's not brainwashed or anything?"

"No. The way he was acting...it wasn't Kryptonian enough for the AI's taste."

Martha frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know. We were interviewing Coach Quigley about the incident and he was fine before we started. He was complaining about the assignment because he finds football barbaric."

Martha's eyes widened in surprise. "He does?"

"Tons. He really hates it."

She shook her head. "Clark loved it. He wanted to play so badly. I just thought that Kal-El..."

"His people were about intellectual olympiads, apparently," she replied. "They're different."

"I know that," Martha replied earnestly. "But sometimes they're not. He's stubborn and awkward and sensitive and confused and sometimes it's so very much Clark."

Chloe stiffened. "He's _not _."

"You didn't let me finish," Martha objected. "And there's something else there. The way he looks at things, sometimes he's so honestly awed by them. I know that look. I saw it on Kal-El's face when he was little and I introduced him to everything-the farm, baths, toys. I just sometimes see a lot more between them than I first assumed."

Chloe smiled slightly. "I know the feeling, but something's wrong. He's not violent or anything. He's just different."

"How?"

"Sensitive, even for him. He's acting like Clark. He's doing it on purpose-the way he talks, the way he stares at me. He's good at pretending, Martha."

"I had to teach them to be. I'm sorry about that. They both...he...I don't know how to say it."

"The pronouns will drive you nuts."

She nodded. "Both of them lie so well. Not about their powers. Clark's 'adrenaline' line was always terrible, but they keep their feelings so closed off."

"Not Kal-El, not right now. He's blunt about how he feels about me." Chloe blushed. "I...I do know how much he loves me."

Martha frowned. "Chloe, I know that he's done something. He hasn't explained it exactly, but I met Khyla and Dr. Willowbrook. I know about their legends of the True One and of marriage bracelets. I know that's Clark's watch dwarfing your wrist."

"Your point?"

"I don't know what you have between you, but in his mind, he thinks you're married, doesn't he?"

"Not exactly," she hedged. "He just has made it clear I'm his intended. He's been pretty serious about it for years."

"He's a month old."

"He knew, that part of him that was there all along with Clark, he knew the minute he met me. I think Kryptonians fall hard."

Martha smiled sadly. "Like Clark's attachment to Lana?"

"Yeah. Kal-El and Clark can't agree on anything. He chose me and Clark chose Lana and that's caused all the problems. But, I know that maybe you don't approve of us being in Metropolis."

"It's hard to approve. I know that, as far as the customs he lives by go, he's basically proposed. I just don't...you're seventeen."

"I'll be eighteen in a month," she deadpanned. "I know it's awkward. My point is that it's working. I care about him a lot. We, uh-"

"I can imagine what you're doing, Chloe," Martha replied, with a little censure in her voice. "I understand and I know that he wouldn't ever just fall into something like that. I just wish you both had waited a while longer, perhaps until college or an actual I don't know what."

"Marriage?"

"I don't know what you're going to do, if you're going to stay."

Chloe frowned. "I have to. I promised I'd be his counsel and I have the control of the AI."

"No, you can be his counsel. You two can be partners but not be lovers. One day, the alliance he tricked you into might be all there is between you."

"You think I'd leave him?"

"I don't know. Clearly, if there was a fight and he hasn't come back, he might think that you would."

Chloe shook her head. "So what? Does this mean that you're not leaving? You were pretty quick to shove him out the door a month ago."

"No, not that. I just...everything's moved very quickly between you two and it's very, very sensitive. I don't buy any of what Kal-El used to snowball Jonathan. He's not going to break bad if you argue and turn to a true Crusade. He's not like that. I can see it now that I'm looking."

"But?"

"Whatever you have might not hold, at least not from the romantic end."

Chloe swallowed hard. "I'm trying, Martha. I just don't know what's wrong with him. He doesn't like before, not you. He adores you."

"I know."

"But he thinks Clark was weak and foolish. He's never wanted to be like him. I can see him getting twitchy sometimes in the halls and let him into The Torch just so he doesn't have to pretend all the time. Except last night all he wanted to be was Clark. It doesn't make any sense."

"Meteor rocks?"

"Huh?"

"We know what black does and I assume Kal-El has mentioned the green ones."

"Yeah."

"There's a third kind."

"The school rings," Chloe replied. "The red ones. Clark went all Marlon Brando when he got his."

"Has the school ordered a new batch?"

"No, but he's not violent or rude. He's...it's the opposite. He's almost simpering."

"Well maybe there's another color. If there are three, why aren't there four?"

Chloe nodded. "But there's nothing on him. There's no rings, no necklaces and we spent the night in a city without any Kryptonite."

Martha sighed. "But that's the only thing I can think of that would make a personality change this drastic."

"Maybe it's me," she replied, leaning against the kitchen counter. "Maybe he needed more?"

Martha shook her head. "No, this is different. It has to be. He was perfectly content on Tuesday. Something's acting on him. We just have to figure out what."

"Well, I'm open to suggestions."

"You said he was fine before the interview?"

"Yeah, he was completely himself, um, pardon the expression."

"And then after he left the field he was off?"

"No," Chloe replied, her eyes widening. "He started behaving oddly before we even met Quigley. He downed about four cups of Gatorade because he was thirsty and that seemed weird. I mean, he was so careless about superspeeding while doing it."

"Hmm," the other woman said, considering everything and Chloe had a flash of Martha as a reporter or a lawyer deep in cross-examination. "It's a start. Let me go check out the school. I promised to help with a PTA thing anyway. I think something's up with more than just the players."

"Spiked Gatorade? Come on."

Martha shrugged. "My son is an alien and you're meteor infected and now Gatorade that's not exactly from the store is too out there?"

Chloe shrugged. "I see your point, but really? Gatorade?"

"Nothing's sacred anymore," Martha quipped. "Now, you have to find him. Do you think he'd go to the school eventually."

"He'll come back to me," Chloe replied. "Eventually. I don't know how to make him less frustrated, but I don't think he can stay away from me."

She frowned. "Chloe what exactly does you being his intended mean?"

"I have no idea, but after we fix him, I think he needs to explain a lot more about Krypton to us, because everything's even more complicated than I thought."

Kal-El wasn't at The Torch when she came in at nine that morning. He wasn't in AP Biology class and he wasn't in Calculus. It wasn't until after lunch, when Chloe was sitting down at her desk, that Kal-El showed up.

Apparated really.

One second she was sitting in the back corner of the room by herself and the next, he was in the empty desk beside her. Chloe squeaked when she realized he was there. Mrs. Miller was still droning on about the age of Gothic literature up front and most of the class was asleep, lucky for them. Of course, this was also Smallville. They'd ignored a teleporter (more or less) in their midst before.

Still, it was a bad precedent. "Kal-El," she hissed. "Do you ever think things through?"

Kal-El who clearly had raided Clark's closet, she hadn't seen him in a red t-shirt since before she'd gone into witness protection, frowned. "Of course, but no one noticed anything. Jeez."

"Kal-El, Martha and I were talking and we think that you might have drunken something you weren't supposed to."

He sighed. "No, I've just figured everything out."

"What do you mean?"

"I know how to make you happy. I know how to be what you need."

"Stop saying that!" She hissed. "It's creepy. I don't need you to be anything. You don't have to change yourself for me ever."

"Everyone changes for the person they love. Clark tried to be human for Lana. You tried to be supportive of _him _, even when you didn't want him to start drawing back to Lana last year. Now, I can be everything you want. I can be more devoted."

"But if you give up who you are, then why would I still like you? I don't want a pod person."

"That's not very funny, Chlo," Kal-El sniffed. "I thought you weren't doing invasion jokes anymore."

She frowned. "I didn't mean it like that. You don't have to do anything for me."

"I do, though," he replied and then there was a flicker again and the largest stone she'd ever seen was on her desk.

She couldn't help herself. Chloe let out a low whistle and then cursed loud enough that even Mrs. Miller couldn't focus on Poe any longer. "Holy Fuck!"

"Miss Sullivan, Mr. Kent, is there a problem here?"

Chloe blushed as the entire class turned around to see her and Kal-El. Most of them had their eyes glued onto the massive blue diamond, roughly the size of a baseball, on her desk. "No, no problem. Nothing to see, move it along."

"Right," Kal-El replied, slouching in a way that was pure Clark.

"Good then. Then you'll have no problem, Clark, telling us about _Annabel Lee _."

Kal-El smirked. "What would you like to start with? The unusual rhyme scheme Poe preferred, the art of a little line scansion, or the back story. The forbidden love part's trite. The fact it was an underaged cousin is far more interesting."

Mrs. Miller didn't find that funny. Apparently Kal-El wasn't so high that he still couldn't be bitter about his B+. "I don't appreciate the sarcasm, Mr. Kent, and I definitely don't appreciate the language, Miss Sullivan. I think there won't be an issue of The Torch this week."

"Why not?" She demanded.

"Because both of you are headed for detention. Now, I'm going back to the lesson and you're both going to be silent, is that understood?"

Kal-El cursed in Kryptonian under his breath, but smiled back for her. "Of course, Mrs. Miller."

"And Mr. Kent?"

"Yes?"

"Please return that prop to the drama department. Really, that's just rude."

"Oh what the Hell are you thinking?" Chloe swore, slamming The Torch door shut behind her. "Do you have any idea what this is?"

"Considering I went to Washington to get it, I think I do."

She plopped the "prop" down in front of him. "This? This is the Hope Diamond. It's worth about a quarter of a billion dollars-billion with a B, Kal-El. You stole it."

"I thought you'd like it," he defended and he was pouting.

"Kal-El, you can make something like this. You stole it."

"No one was using it. Besides, it's not about the monetary value. It's cursed or so they say. I thought you'd find the history behind it fascinating. I considered stealing something from the Carter expedition to Cairo, but two curses might be pressing my luck. Besides, I don't like Egypt much."

Chloe sighed. Kal-El's ancestors had been there, just as they had in China and Guatemala. When he thought of them, he thought of world conquest, and of the way his people had abused humanity before. It made him nervous and she knew that, but he was wrong. Kal-El...he didn't hurt people.

"You have to take it back. I can't have this. It's not mine. It's certainly not yours."

"But I wanted you to have a gift. It's nice!"

"Are you four? You can't steal things, Kal-El."

"But it's for you."

"It doesn't make it right just because it's not something you're keeping. You can't do anything for me, Kal-El. Love doesn't work that way."

He frowned, deeply confused. "Yes it does. I'll do whatever you ask. It doesn't matter what you want."

Chloe gulped. Kal-El was sitting down in her desk chair, at a low enough angle to rest his head on her hip like a supplicant. The most powerful being on the planet was offering to give her anything she wanted. "What does that mean?"

"I'd do anything to keep you, Chlo. I'm devoted to you."

It was the third time he'd said that exact phrase. It was like programming, as if he'd been brainwashed but she didn't know Kryptonite could do that. Hell, Kal-El's brain didn't work like a human one. She doubted he could be truly Manchurian Candidated. She'd never said anything about it to him, but she strongly suspected that Jor-El had tried to brainwash him, that the split that had happened was an accident that the AI hadn't anticipated. Even then, who Kal-El truly was had come to the surface.

But now?

Where was he getting all of this from?

"I know," she replied, patting his head. "I know you say that but how far would you go?"

"I can get you anything," he replied eagerly. "I can make you Queen, right now. You can have a country, any one you want."

"Kal-El-"

"I could get you _anything _."

"Stop."

"Why?"

"I...all I want is for you to take it back."

Kal-El's expression closed off immediately and he stood to his full height. "You'd like it if he got it for you."

Chloe didn't bother to argue the point that, in an odd way, Clark kind of had. "No, it's stolen. I can't accept it. You asked me to be your counsel. I'm doing it. You can't steal things."

"I see."

"You can't just be flashy with your powers all of a sudden, Kal-El."

"Are you ashamed of me? Is that why you insisted that we pretend to be Clark and Chloe still and not who we are? Do you just want me here in Smallville so I can be him?"

"No."

"I'm trying, Chlo. I can be better for you."

"Just take the diamond back and don't steal again. That would make me happiest."

He nodded. "I see. But if I wanted to buy you something?"

"I don't need gifts. You always give them. I need you to work with me. You're sick. I think something from the football team has poisoned you, and we need to fix it. You're not thinking clearly. You know stealing is beneath your House. You know it. You know you'd never do it normally without world ending pressure on you. Just let me and Martha help you."

Kal-El shook his head and grabbed the Hope back. She winced at the tightness of his grip and hoped he didn't crack it. "_ I'm _helping you, both of you. My father took the person both of you most love away. I'm giving him back. I...I'll bring you something better, Chlo. I can do that." He nodded and she had the disconcerting feeling he was talking more to himself than to her. "I can make you love me; I can."

"Kal-El," she started, reaching out for him.

He backed away from her and the rejection stung. "No, I'm not good enough yet. I can do better. I promise." With that, he was gone.

Chloe sighed. Why the Hell hadn't the meteors given her superspeed too?

Pulling out her cellphone, she punched the top number on her emergency speed dial. "Martha? Tell me you found something because I think Kal-El has left the building.


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

"Oh thank God," Chloe replied as Martha entered The Torch office. "Tell me you found something."

The redhead frowned back at her. "What's he done now?"

Chloe sighed. She didn't want to upset Martha or make her worry. Technically, Kal-El hadn't hurt anyone yet. He'd just endangered himself and robbed one, tiny, um, national museum. "Well, he might have blurred into class. No one noticed because of the post-lunch Poe-inspired English coma."

Martha's expression remained neutral. "We can deal with that. Kal-El's not Clark."

"Yeah, we established that."

"No, I meant that he is halfway out of Smallville. Dr. Swann would protect him if something happened and, clearly, he's not going to hide his true nature for much longer. With Clark, we spent so much time trying to find a way to ensure he could keep a normal life. Kal-El doesn't want that and, frankly, he's powerful enough now that no one could hurt him."

"The right rocks."

"No one knows. I can understand why he'd be much more cavalier, especially if he's drugged. Was there anything else?"

Chloe sighed again. "Martha, don't get upset, but he might have, just for a few hours, borrowed the Hope Diamond."

"He did what?"

Oh whoa. Martha was scary. She hadn't had a mother yell at her since she was about eight. She remembered that vaguely. She'd gotten ink from her printer all over everything and then her mom had yelled and told her to clean her hands. She'd scrubbed them until they'd gone raw. Chloe still didn't know why she hadn't stopped when she'd started to bleed. She just had to keep washing. Shivering, Chloe looked down at her hands and shoved them in her pockets. She didn't think about Moira anymore.

"He stole the Hope Diamond for me but I told him to take it back and explained that I wouldn't accept anything stolen from him. He wasn't happy."

"You think he'll steal again?"

Frankly, as crazy as Kal-El had gone, she didn't think he'd just draw the line at stealing. He'd offered her anything and he'd meant it. If she'd asked for the president of the United State's head in box like in _Seven _, she'd probably have gotten it. That wasn't Kal-El's fault. The player who'd tried to kill Coach Quigley had never had a history of violence on his record before and, yet, there he'd been with a shotgun. Whatever they'd all been poisoned with stripped any sense of right and wrong. The only Kal-El was going by now was the edict of "make Chloe happy."

She hoped that her clear stance on not murdering, stealing, or maiming people would keep him docile until they could undo everything. If he hurt someone, if he did anything like his ancestors had done, Kal-El would never forgive himself.

"I don't know. I told him that I didn't want any gifts and that he had to buy them for me if he even thought of it. He was very upset when he left. He thought I rejected the diamond because _Clark _hadn't given it to me, not because, you know, I can't explain the millions of dollars in stolen diamond on my desk."

Martha let out a sharp breath. "What do you think he's doing now?"

She shrugged. "I'm hoping he's busy with the credit card Swann provided for us at some far flung store in Perth or Barcelona or Buenos Aires. He likes to bring me things when he travels anyway. I'm hoping he's just taking this as a challenge to find and _buy _something better."

"He buys you things?"

Chloe nodded. "I don't ask for them. In fact, I keep asking him not to do it. But normally, if he's somewhere, he'll pick up something. It's like the clothes in my closet just magically reproduced."

"Chloe," Martha said, her tone disapproving.

"I don't want the couture, I swear." She said, gesturing to her worn jeans and slight rumple JC Penny special shirt. "He just does it. It's like his natural bent but turned up to eleven."

Martha, despite the situation, grinned at the allusion. "I don't like that he always feels so compelled like this."

"I know and I try and make everything clear to him every day. I'm not Lana. I don't lead people on, Martha. But he keeps doing it anyway. This has just made it a lot worse."

"Do you think he has to do it?"

"I don't think he has to steal from the Smithsonian."

"No, the tributes. Do you think it's part of the...what's the word for this? Imprinting sounds too clinical. But maybe it's something he has to do for you."

"But he started doing it before he ever gave me the watch," she objected. "It doesn't matter. He's still not thinking clearly. There's a huge difference between using his own money to buy a dress and ripping off national treasures. We have to stop this. So, what have you heard?"

"I can tell you what I've seen first."

"Oh do tell," Chloe replied, grinning. She had to admit. Kal-El had a point. Dealing with Martha as more of an equal (and they weren't because, as odd as their fledging mother-son relationship was, Martha was still eying Chloe occasionally as the woman defiling her son) was enjoyable. She could see the Metropolis polish very easily, that sharp mind which had scammed a way into keeping the most sensitive secret in history hidden.

Oh God.

Kryptonians were Freudian.

"Chloe?"

"Sorry, stray thought," she replied, honestly. "What do you know?"

"I had to meet with the science department head about something. There's a fund drive going on to help provide scholarship money for science fair participants to go to the state finals in Topeka. I..._ Clark _used to really like competing in that when he was in middle school. I've been helping out with it for years."

"Okay."

"Sorry, pretext. Mr. Fishman wasn't in right away so I just waited out in the halls. I know you and Kal-El have been busy with The Torch but have you really watched people in the hallways lately?"

"Not really," she admitted. "I mostly watch him when we're out there. He can act for a while, but it stresses him out. I mostly count the seconds until I can sweep him in here."

"Then you haven't seen it?"

"What?"

"The football team, all of them. Something is seriously wrong with them. It's as if _The Stepford Wives _were made real."

"Huh? I don't see any '50s poodle skirts out there, Martha."

"No, not the girls. The players. It's...I saw them carrying purses, holding up make-up mirrors, doting on all their girlfriends, even expressing genuine interest in shopping at The Limited after school. A few of the players were smiling this vacant smile and talking enthusiastically about skipping practice."

Chloe frowned. "You can't skip practice. I covered the beat long enough to know the policies. If you ditch practice, you can't start."

"I know that," Martha replied. "Jonathan was the captain his senior year. I know the mentality. No player is going to ditch practice, a shot at being seen by college scouts at games, in order to go shopping. It doesn't happen."

"Okay, so we have the players in jealous rages and at the same time doting to obsessive degrees on their girlfriends."

"The Gatorade has to be spike with something meteor rock based or Kal-El wouldn't be affected."

"Or magic but I doubt that in this town," she concluded. "So, you think the cheerleaders have done something?"

"I know they have. That's the second part. Mr. Fishman wasn't available so I met with the chemistry teacher instead. He had a stack of projects on his desk. The top one was by some girl named Mandy and it was about a 'Love Molecule.'"

"That's impossible."

"Uh-huh. But if you add radioactive rocks with the property to alter almost anyone or anything..."

"Then the love molecule starts working, but not the way they want it to. The boys aren't stable. Kal-El said he overheard the captain beating two of the others in the locker room because he just thought they were looking at his girl. I bet Coach Quigley just glanced over at the cheerleaders without even thinking about it...they're on hair triggers."

"Exactly."

Chloe frowned. "I don't understand."

Martha quirked her head at her. "What?"

"Kal-El, he's not himself. I mean, he is in some ways. His generous nature's been amplified, but everything that makes him him-his sarcasm, his willingness to argue with me, his sense of self. It's all gone. He's just trying to please me. That's all there is. There's nothing else there."

"And you're confused because?"

"The players have to be thinking at that base a level. They have to be on autopilot where all they want to do is cater to their girlfriends' every whim. That's not love."

"No, it's not."

"Why would anyone want that?"

Martha smiled at her and it was the warmest look she'd received since they'd brought up her and Kal-El's sleeping arrangements yesterday. "Because they aren't like you, Chloe. Because there are a lot of people out there who have subjugation and love mixed up."

"I know Kal-El's doing this because he does love me. I don't think some of the players...no, I know that none of them, when not drugged, are that devoted."

"And I'm not talking about the boys' feelings. I'm talking about the cheerleaders. They just want to be worshipped. I knew a lot of girls from my debutante days and that's how it works. Most of those relationships, they aren't love. The girls are the prettiest and the thinnest and from the best families. They're the trophies perfect for the arm of a CEO and, in exchange, they get anything they want."

"Sounds terrible."

"It is," she replied stiffly. "It's why I left."

Chloe's eyes widened. She knew that tone. There had been something else, something serious before Mr. Kent. Whatever had happened when it imploded had been enough to drive her out of Metropolis permanently. But that wasn't her business.

"I don't get it. Why would anyone want that?"

"A lot of people want that, Chloe. You're not naive."

"No, I'm not but I've had it for the last twenty-four hours. It's empty. There's nothing there. I just want my...I just want Kal-El back."

Martha nodded. "That's the problem. I assume the dosing must wear off eventually, but we need to get it out of him now."

"Well he could be in China for all I know," she defended. "Besides, what did the report say about reversing the effects?"

"That would imply I have a copy."

"Oh it would."

she smirked and pulled it from her purse. "And you're right. There's nothing about it. Just a lot of equations I don't understand. I can fax it to Swann's offices."

"Physicist, not chemist."

"I don't think they thought that far ahead," Martha replied. "They don't want to reverse it."

Chloe sighed. "Well there has to be a way. After the shotgun incident, the kid snapped out of it. Something stopped him."

"I don't know."

"Well, maybe I can find out. You got the background, maybe it's time for interviews," she finished, pulling out her cellphone.

"Who are you calling?"

"Oh, I'm down a reporter. I'm going to need a little back-up."

Mandy had mastered the complicated art of shaking her butt and calling out letters in the correct order. Chloe was underwhelmed. Leaning against the water cooler table at practice, she eyed the chearleading team captain with contempt. What she was doing was wrong. Free will was the best things humans and, apparently Kryptonians, had going for them. She was stealing it. And anything the players did while that high.

It wasn't anything like consensual.

"That's her?" Lois asked, sneering. "I could break her in about five seconds."

"Well, I didn't need you to snap her neck, Lo. I just wanted someone who wasn't too short to ride this ride play bad cop."

Lois smirked. "I can do that. I still can't believe she's pulling something like that. That's crazy...and possibly something daddy would find applicable."

They all had their hangups. Lois at least loved The General but she had has many problems with him as Chloe did with Moira. Her cousin mentioned him often and she could understand that. They were having a downturn in their relationship after Lois got kicked out of high school. It wasn't as bad as it sounded. Her cousin, being Sam Lane's daughter, had been enrolled in a military prep school on the outskirts of Metropolis. Lois was a fair student and excellent at all the physical challenge stuff. The academics weren't the problem.

The fact that she was more an O'Hara than a Lane was.

Sam Lane was a company man and he followed orders. Ella Lane, like Lois or like her sister Moira, had never been one to tow the line, especially when something wrong was going on. There had been a rash of hazing against the female cadets and Lois hadn't liked it. She'd liked it less when the administration had refused to prosecute the ring leaders, despite ample evidence. There were big ranking fathers involved, of course. So her cousin being her cousin had fixed it anyway.

Apparently, if you dosed four of the sons of the military's best and burliest and left them taped naked to a flagpole and covered in honey in the high spring heat...well, they didn't just get a lot of bee stings.

You got asked to leave.

Chloe thought it had been brilliant.

Sam didn't think so. Lois was on her own, currently, living at an apartment and finishing up her senior year at P.S. 137 in Metropolis. The only thing her cousin really regretted in all of it was that she hadn't taken pictures of the after.

"Yeah, great, brainwashing tools for the masses. Just help me out here."

"Where's that Claude guy."

Chloe rolled her eyes. Lois did not like Clark. Mostly because she'd been the one on the end of the frantic two AM phone calls any time Clark had broken her heart. Considering his track record, it had been a lot of panicked phone calls. "He's not feeling well. Pete left school. I'm low on reporters."

"Muscle."

"Same difference," she replied, plastering on a fake smile when Mandy finally came over to her. "Hey! Chloe Sullivan-"

The other girl rolled her eyes. "I know who you are. You work for The Flame."

"Torch," Lois snapped. "But that assumes you can read _The Cat in the Hat _, let alone a newspaper."

"Who the Hell are you?"

"Lane, Lois Lane. I'm filling in on the vapid and bitchy beat for the day. Do you have quotes."

Chloe sighed. "Subtle, Lo. Look, we were actually talking with Mr. Solomon about the science fair prospects this year. You're not in them but he was going on about your paper."

Mandy paled. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Chloe pulled it out of her backpack. "The Love Molecule? It's pretty advanced. I guess you can read."

"Look, it was a project. I might have had my cousin at Met U help a little with it. I don't care about it and I don't give quotes to rags like yours."

"Excuse me."

Lois had one arm already cocked back. "You wanna repeat that?"

"No, but I guess I can give a quote," she said, glaring at Chloe. "Back off, bitch."

Chloe yanking down on Lois's arm was the only thing keeping Mandy from having a black eye. "Okay, so I guess then you aren't dosing the football team to make them love slaves, ones that have already put the coach and two of their own in the hospital."

Mandy's jaw clenched as she filled up a cup of the red liquid. "That's crazier than most of your crap, Chloe." She continued, holding the cup high enough to be over Chloe's head. "It's just a little Gatorade. Oops."

And now Chloe was wearing it.

"Oh you're going to be so sorry you did that," Lois snapped.

"Yes, she is." Kal-El said and Chloe really, really hoped she just hadn't noticed him sneaking up on her. Based on the fact that neither Mandy or Lois were gaping open-jawed at him, she bet he had.

"Ka...Clark!"

Lois whistled. "Huh, this is not what I'd expected. I thought he'd be shorter and a lot more like Chad."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Later, Lo."

Kal-El was glaring at Mandy and Chloe was pretty sure it wasn't her imagination that the ambient air temperature was rising. "What did you do?"

"Oh, it's you. Yes, I'm totally threatened by the guy Chloe leads around on a leash. I remember you when all you did was camp out on the bleachers staring at Lana like an idiot. Get bored with her in Metropolis."

Kal-El's arm tensed under her. "I don't like your tone and you're going to apologize to my intended."

Lois was blinking. "Uh? What the Hell? Are you like up to promise rings, Chlo? When did that happen?"

Mandy didn't care. "As if. Look, loser, if you want to be all upset that your little pathetic excuse for a warm body got insulted, go ahead. I'm not apologizing. You want to make a deal out of it? I date the quarterback."

Kal-El smiled and it scared her. "That would be amusing. You want him to take me?"

"You? God, don't you have to sit out gym class for allergies. Don't even waste Matt's time."

"I could waste yours," he rumbled. "Apologize."

"Fuck you."

Kal-El started to lunge and Chloe hated herself for what she was about to do. Gathering her concentration, she clamped down on Kal-El's arm and let loose. She was practicing her power with him, honing the alternate side of herself the same way she was helping Kal-El practice being more human. And she was getting good at it. Kal-El stumbled and fell to his knees and Mandy's feet and his breath was coming in sharp gasps.

She laughed. "That's about what I thought. Get lost." And with that, she'd marched back onto the field.

"Okay, so, does anyone else want to explain what the fuck is going on? Because between love potion mindwhammies and whatever the Hell it is between the two of you, this is weirder."

Chloe blinked as she helped Kal-El to his feet. "What?"

"I saw you, Chlo. Mandy wasn't paying attention because it didn't involve shiny lip gloss, but I saw. You touched Carlos-"

"Clark," she replied tiredly.

"Whatever. You touched him and he went down hard. I've watched a lot of guys his size go down on the base and it takes a Hell of a lot more than a touch."

Chloe held her breath. "It's nothing. Clark does have allergies and asthma and he gets over excited."

Kal-El, who had enough presence of mind to want to keep her cover intact, nodded. "Exactly, I am a klutz."

"Well duh, but I'm not buying it," Lois continued, frowning. "Was there a glow?"

"No, Lois," Kal-El groused. "There was not."

"Chloe?"

"I'm fine, Lois. Thanks. Look, Clark and I just started dating and..."

Lois's eyes widened. "Oh, I get it! You drank the Kool-Aid."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Sorry, Gatorade, same difference."

"I might have had some," he admitted.

"Oh, so that's why you're all caveman, besides, you know, the obvious lack of intelligence."

"Lois, hey. I'll pick this up tomorrow. There's a pool party tomorrow night on campus and the rumor is the football team is having it. Think you can score an invite?"

Lois smirked and propped up her boobs. "Oh, I can do that. Later, Chlo. Calvin, try not to drink anything again."

Kal-El growled as she left the field. "I really don't like her."

"No, I couldn't tell," she deadpanned. "Kal-El what the Hell were you...never mind. You aren't thinking. You could have killed her."

"I thought about it," he replied, rubbing his arms. "You hurt me."

"You were going to hurt a human being."

"But she insulted you," he replied, running a hand through her soaked hair.

"I'm fine, Kal-El," she started, blinking when she felt the breeze he kicked up. "Did you move?"

"Yes."

She pulled away from him and, on a hunch, tried to pour herself a cup from the cooler. The paper cup came back empty. "You drank more?"

"I was thirsty," he replied and his eyes were tinged with red. "Do you want to come home? We don't have to right up anything, Chlo, and I brought presents."

"Kal-El, not right now. Maybe we can go to the farm, instead. Martha's worried."

"Would it make you happy if I went to the farm? I know you want me to see my mom more here in Smallville. If it would make you happy, Chlo..."

"I just need to get some rest. Lois and I will go to the party, figure out how to cure this, and you'll be fine."

Kal-El furrowed his brow in confusion. "But I am fine. I'm better than fine! I've figured out my purpose."

She frowned. Kal-El was the only being on the planet who didn't actually have to ask the "Why am I here" question. The AI had been more than clear about the why. "What's that?"

Kal-El smiled that same vacant smile he'd been displaying for the last day and kissed her. "My purpose is you."


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

"Mom, do you need any help with anything?" Kal-El asked. He was standing over the oven, waiting like an excited St. Bernard puppy for anything Martha asked. Chloe told him to be polite, she didn't expect him to start channeling Clark Kent on Thanksgiving. She should have suspected as much.

"Kal-El, it's fine," Martha replied.

"But I don't even need oven mitts. I can help."

"Why don't you just sit at the counter with Chloe for a while. Jonathan's coming back from town with some extra condiments we ran out of. When he gets here in about five minutes, we'll eat."

Kal-El tensed at the mention of Jonathan, but kept smiling that same game show host smile. "Alright."

Chloe yipped when he appeared next to her. "Don't give me a heart attack!"

He grinned. "I didn't mean to. Here."

Martha, who was busy stirring some gravy, frowned back at him. "Kal-El, what's in the box?"

"A present," he replied, his tone slightly hurt. "I did not steal it this time. I was more than able to procure it."

"Procure?" Chloe asked, opening the exquisitely wrapped gift.

Kal-El blushed. "I found it for you."

She sighed and pulled out her gift, an fine filigreed gold necklace with a stunningly large red stone, cut to laser precision into an oval shape, hanging from it. "Where did this come from?"

"I made it. It took some time to find and smelt the gold. The ruby was far easier to find," he replied, reaching out already to undo the clasp. "You like it right? I thought it would be pretty."

Chloe glanced at Martha was shaking her head sadly. "Kal-El, it's very nice."

He paused and let the necklace fall to the counter. "But you don't like it."

"Kal-El," Martha started. "You don't have to give Chloe anything."

He frowned, clearly confused. "But it makes her happy."

"Actually, it doesn't," she corrected, grabbing his hands in hers. "Kal-El, I don't want you spending all your time trying to find something magically out there because you think it'll make me happy. I don't want anything but for you to get better."

"I can't believe you drank more of the Gatorade," Martha intoned. "Chloe told you something was wrong with it."

"There's nothing wrong with it, mom," he whined. "It makes me feel better."

"I bet it does. You're so dosed you probably don't know what day it is."

He blinked. "Of course I do. It's Thursday!"

Chloe idly wondered if that much Red K was also making Kal-El dumber. She really was beginning to miss him. It was odd. It was not the same sharp pain that still stabbed from thinking of her childhood friend dead, for lack of a better term. This was something else. She and Kal-El had fallen into something entirely different. They'd saved each other's lives; they shared a life, something separate and unique and them, that strange mix between Chloe and Clark of Smallville and Kal-El and Sull-I-Van setting out to find their place in the world at large. She'd come to love his honesty and his snark and even that inescapable trace of Kryptonian hubris.

She loved the fight in him.

This docile, accommodating version was no more Kal-El than Clark Kent was.

He felt wrong.

"Kal-El, please don't bring me anything anymore. I'm going to get you undosed in about a day and then you'll be fine. I just...I only want you," Chloe offered, placing the delicate strand back in his palm.

Kal-El nodded but the innocent joy was gone from his eyes. "Alright, Chlo. Then I'll do better."

"I...it's not a contest."

"Kal-El," Martha replied. "Your father doesn't do this for me."

Kal-El stiffened further. "Jonathan can't afford it." Then, realizing what he'd said, he glanced back apologetically at Chloe. "I mean our father can't."

Chloe sighed. He was obviously committed to his being Clark plan. He'd never have even come back to Hickory Lane if he weren't. "Just try and rest for a little bit. You don't have to buy or find or make anything, okay?"

Kal-El considered this and then smiled. "No, I won't buy or fabricate anything again. I promise."

Martha offered a pained smile as she pulled drained the green beans. "Kal-El, Chloe and I were wondering."

"What about?" He replied cheerily.

"We wondered about what it means for you that Chloe's your intended."

Kal-El frowned. "It means that I am pledged to her. It's pretty simple, mom."

"No, it's not," she replied. "We're very confused about what this entails for you."

"I don't want to talk about it," he snapped.

"That's a rude tone."

He swallowed and bowed his head. Kal-El respected Martha and never wanted to upset her, whether he was on Gatorade or not. "I'm sorry. I don't see the point in talking about Krypton. No one likes it. You don't want me to talk about it. We didn't talk about it before. Who needs alien things anyway?"

Chloe frowned. "You didn't forget to turn in the proofs to Dr. Swann at all, did you?"

He shook his head. "I'm done with the alien stuff. It's like I said, the Kal-El part, no one likes him. You both like Clark better. So, I can be that for you."

"Kal-El-" Martha said and she sounded as devastated as Chloe felt.

"No, you can call me Clark if you want."

Oh he was going to be so embarrassed when he finally came down from his high.

"No, baby," Martha said quietly, taking his other hand. "I can't because that's not who you are and that's not who Chloe and I want you to be. Clark's gone and he's not coming back and we accept that. It hurts very much, but it doesn't make us want to turn you away. Do you understand?"

"He's better," Kal-El affirmed, shrugging, and standing up to place the turkey on the table. "I think you'll all see how much better this is."

Martha shook her head as Kal-El set out the silverware. Quietly, she pulled out a pen and wrote a short note for Chloe, just a few words:

_It's a farce. _

Chloe nodded and scribbled something back, letting Martha see it only long enough to read it, before she shoved it into her jeans pocket:

_You miss him too, don't you? _

"More than I ever would have thought possible," Martha replied, sighing as she watched Kal-El, dressed in clothes that were no longer truly his, pretend to be anything other than who he was. Chloe wondered if the absurdity of such a scenario had ever occurred to Martha, had she ever realized that, eventually, even if Kal-El had never come, that Clark couldn't have continued to break bread in a small farmhouse in Kansas.

Neither man had been made for something that bucolic.

Kal-El was so much more than this and he didn't want to see it because of her.

God, how could he think that she'd want him to do this? To hide? They'd met as partners trying to save the world. She'd met him, the real him, for the first time, broadcasting his otherworldliness for all to see. Knowing all he could be, all he wanted to do to protect this world, it made her care for him more, not less.

Clark had done this. He had hidden himself, pretended to be human because Lana would never love the real him. Her attitude in the Fortress, her instinctual fear of Kal-El had proven it. Maybe both of them had learned or started to believe that all human girls thought like that. But Kal-El should know better. He knew she wasn't like every other girl, not anymore. He knew she wasn't like Lana, whom he hated anyway. He should know that she didn't care, that she didn't need him to please her.

She did care for him, and now that he wasn't even close to himself, she realized how much.

"Chlo?"

The name cut and she wanted to hear him say "Sull-I-Van" so badly. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to pass me the napkins?"

"Sure, Kal-El, no problem."

Dinner always seemed to be awkward when it involved Kal-El. Jonathan had been beyond surprised to find Kal-El sitting at the table in a worn flannel shirt, earnestly drilling his mother about the farm. Jonathan had settled into his seat and watched noncommittally as Kal-El talked about school and the farm and a little about how annoying it had been to meet Lois. Martha, on the other hand, kept trying to get him back to talking about his work with Dr. Swann. He'd been so very excited about it only a few days ago.

Kal-El didn't like that much at all.

He kept talking about school and, if she didn't know better, if his eyes weren't open just a little wide and his happy tone a little too forced, she never would have known Clark had gone anywhere.

"Kal-El," Jonathan said, finally breaking the silence. "I'm surprised you're here."

"You can call me Clark," Kal-El replied eagerly, although his shoulders were tensed. "Mom and Chlo said no to that."

"Martha?"

Martha sighed. "Some of the cheerleaders at school spiked the water cooler with a meteor rock based love potion. Kal-El drank some. He's a little off today."

"I am not off," Kal-El pouted and, okay, now that was equal parts him and Clark.

"Oh," Jonathan said and Chloe could tell by his own hesitance that he was trying to keep his temper as Kal-El was. "So, you were on the football field? Have you been thinking of playing?"

"No. I don't like sports. Wait," he stopped and blinked back at Chloe. "Do you want me to like sports?"

Chloe groaned. "When I get my hands on that free will robbing bitca, I'm gonna kill her."

Kal-El decided that he'd take that as a "yes" and he spent the rest of the night enthusiastically talking about football with Jonathan, prying for information about Jonathan's glory days. Chloe really didn't care much for the ease with which Jonathan interacted with Kal-El, as if he were content to buy the illusion.

Based on her frown, Martha didn't either.

"Are you coming to bed?" Kal-El asked, and he was in fine form with the pouting.

Chloe nodded and slipped under the sheets beside him. She frowned when she realized he was wearing a plain white t-shirt over his boxers. "Kal-El? Is your scar hurting you?"

"No, but it's ugly. I know it makes me different, reminds everyone that I'm an alien. You must not like it because you always try and heal it. I didn't want you to have to stare at it again."

Chloe frowned and stroked at the broad expanse of his chest. "I offer because you still wince with it, because it hurts you. I hate the scar because it means the AI would abuse you if it had the chance. I hate it because Jor-El is an ass. I don't hate you."

"But it's ugly and now it's gone."

"I can't wait for this to wear off. I think it's really doing a number on you."

Kal-El frowned. "I don't think so. I'm just being more honest right now." He sighed and pulled her closer to him. "Would you like to?"

She shook her head. "You're high as a kite. You don't think you are, but trust me, buddy, you're totally out there. I'm not taking advantage of you."

He leered at her. "You take advantage of me every night, in several positions."

She flushed; stupid seventeen year old boys. "Not tonight. If I did that, I wouldn't be any better than Mandy or some guy at a frat with too much alcohol. I wouldn't be comfortable with that."

Kal-El smirked and started to kiss her throat. He was very good at what he did. That part had never been lacking from their relationship. "I don't mind."

Self control.

Self control. She was Chloe Sullivan and she could kick the ass of superaliens and evil billionaires. She wasn't going to just...oh and he did that with his hips, not fair.

Chloe yipped and shot off the bed. "Kal-El, I can't. Tomorrow, when you're healthy, alright?"

Kal-El was staring back at her, as besotted as always. "I can make you very happy."

"You do make me happy now, currently, without any trying," she corrected.

"If I were..."

She sighed and kissed him, not letting him pull her back to the mattress. "You're Kal-El and I care about _you _very, very much. Clark Kent's never been in this bed, so don't even think of dragging him into it." She finished, easing her way back onto the mattress. "Tomorrow, I promise."

Kal-El sighed and wrapped his arms around her. He was silent and sullen as he slipped into sleep, but he did utter one phrase that made it hard for her to fall asleep:

_I know what I can do. _

So far, Kal-El was doing much better. He hadn't blurred in from nowhere, stolen anything, or tried to beat up mere mortals. Yeah, he might have been staring at her and saying how 'devoted' he was too her every five seconds and he might have a grin that matched a Hare Krishna, but, compared to how he'd been acting, this was much better.

Until lunch time.

At lunch time, God decided that Chloe Sullivan had never been publicly humiliated enough before. He'd apparently missed the epic cat fight between her and Lana last year.

"Um, _Clark _," she said, as he set his tray down in front of her. "Don't you want to eat in The Torch office instead?"

Kal-El shook his head. "No, this is much better."

"Okay, but, really, The Torch is quiet."

"But everyone is here."

"Uh-huh, I noticed that." And there were all that many more people around to set Kal-El off. Not that boys paid attention to her but the Gatorade made all the guys on it excessively territorially. It wouldn't take much for Kal-El to think someone else was trying to "steal" her.

"No, this is most assuredly perfect," he replied, smiling broadly when the cheerleaders entered and it was then Chloe's stomach dropped. Kal-El had planned something.

"Kal-El?" she hissed.

"I've been thinking about it, Chlo, and you're right."

She hadn't been wrong in the last seventy-two hours.

"Uh, no, I'm probably not."

He stood up and nodded. She knew that look. That was his stubborn, "now I'll rush in and fight witches one-handed" look. "But you are. I was trying to buy things. You aren't a material girl." Someone next to him snickered at the unintended Madonna allusion. His eyes flared just a second and Chloe gulped. "But I'm supposed to be more sincere than that."

"Sin-what?"

Kal-El smiled as if he'd just uncovered the answer to all the mysteries of the universe (42) and then stepped up onto the table.

Chloe started yanking on his calves but she'd have had an easier time just moving the freaking cafeteria brick by brick. "Get down."

The cafeteria was silent and everyone was watching. In his four years at Smallville High, except for that one run for president, Clark had never done one thing to draw attention to himself. It had everyone's interest piqued.

Kal-El didn't notice the eyes on him, his focus was aimed directly at her. Quickly, although not inhumanly so, he pulled out a small piece of paper from his pocket. Chloe knew it was for effect. His memory was photographic. He could have memorized the entire Metropolis City phone book in seconds. He wanted to read what he'd written.

Oh God.

No, no way. That wasn't possible. It was in no way in any reality, even the one where she was a meteor mutant and her lover was an alien, possible. No fucking way. The universe had mercy, didn't it?

Kal-El coughed and started his first line and Chloe realized that the universe was a heartless bitch.

"I want to let you in on a little secret."

At this point the geniuses on the football team, the ones who weren't hand feeding their girlfriends grapes, were catcalling.

"Clark! You can stop now," she growled.

Kal-El continued. "I'm not who you think I am either."

"Oh God," she moaned, banging her head on the table which, apparently, was the official Kryptonian symbol for please continue and louder!

"My disguise isn't thin, it's barely even in place, because you know who I am and who I'm not. I'm not the man of your dreams masquerading as your best friend. I'm the one who's left standing when the best friend's gone."

"Clark, please, please just stop," she urged, wondering why the Hell no one in the faculty wanted to break this up either.

"I thought I was supposed to be honest with you, and I threw off the facade when we were in Paris."

At this point half the jaws in the cafeteria were dropped. Yeah, that was low profile. Maybe he could throw in a line about evil witches too.

"But it's too much for you and you've already gotten scared and backed away again, so I can go through the masquerade again, be the man you want me to be for you. We..._ I've _," he corrected, stumbling for the first time. "Been two types of guy-the one you grow out of and the one you grow into. I hope that now, as I am, I'm the latter. I just wanted to say that I'm not letting you go, not waiting any longer. I'm here now, Chloe Sull-I-Van," and even as invested as he was in being Clark, he couldn't drop her endearment, not when he was that emotional. "And I'll always fly back to you."

Chloe stood up on instinct and clapped. "And that's scene. Wow I am so glad we are coming along with play practice," she said, reaching up and zapping Kal-El just enough to make him stumble. "Now, about the school paper."


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

"You aren't pleased?"

Chloe was going to have Kal-El, when he wasn't nuts, destroy every Gatorade factory in the continental United States.

"Not so much. Do you know how awkward that was?"

Kal-El shrugged. "I don't care what they think. It's all true."

"Kal-El, I...it was in front of the whole school."

He frowned and leaned back on The Torch sofa. "I screwed up again, didn't I? I can't get it right. I can't make you anything you like. I can't buy you anything you'd like. I can't even give you something I like when I'm being honest and open with you."

"It's not that. It's just that? I'll be living that down for weeks."

Kal-El sighed and put his head in his hands. "I cannot please you, can I?"

"You could help me out by not stealing, buying, or attacking anyone and by doubly _not _doing broad things in public."

"I am sorry, Sull-I-Van. You are right and I have been most foolish."

"No, you've been stoned. There's a difference. I mean, did you see the corner back holding up his girlfriend's sweater choices to his chest to help her pick. You're not the only one who looks silly today. After the latest bout of meteor madness passes, no one will remember it anyway."

He nodded but didn't look up at her. "What can I do-"

"Oh man. I hate sentences that start out like that."

"No, I meant, how can I help you and the annoying one tonight?"

"Lois. It's my cousin Lois and she's good people. She's just superprotective and she's knows that Clark and I had a difficult relationship."

"I am sorry for that, truly."

"I know," she replied. "I didn't know I was having a relationship with two different people, so it's really not your fault I was so confused."

"I understand. Well, perhaps she will not be as strident with me in the future."

"I think she'll get it." She frowned. "You seem clearer."

He looked back up at her. "I think I've processed a bit of the solution by now, but I apparently was not pleasing you the other way around. If you want me to be less obtrusive, I can also attempt that."

She smiled and sat down next to him. "You'll feel better when we get Mandy and threaten her until she gives us the antidote. Besides, stuff you do when high never counts anyway."

Kal-El actually blushed. "Never?"

"No, why?" She asked, confused.

"No reason. So, Chlo...sorry, Sull-I-Van, we are going to the pool?"

Kal-El flung open the door to find Mandy glaring at her boyfriend and Lois pinned under him with her shirt most definitely stripped from her. Lois glared back at Chloe and pushed the lug off of her in one swift movement. "This is the last time I have to be the decoy in undercover. Also, princess," she replied, tossing Mandy her faux Prada bag. "Gotcha."

Mandy made this fish face and gasped a lot. "Roy, how could you!"

"She's hot!"

"I am," Lois agreed, shoving on her t-shirt. "Also, your boy toy? Hates the fruit punch flavor. Sucks to be you."

Chloe laughed as she and Kal-El entered into the room. Lois brushed passed Mandy to stand with them and handed the paper over to Kal-El. "Can you read Greek?"

"It's not that hard," he groused, flipping through the pages of the paper. Martha had been forced to slip it back into Mr. Solomon's box before he'd had a look at it. "Oh. Well that's something."

"Ka...Clark?"

"It's not that bad. Actually, even if you didn't have to redose...Oh, the party's in here now?"

Chloe frowned and rolled her eyes at the collection of linebackers with baseball bats in front of her. "Oh, so now we're going to get the Hell beaten out of us?"

"I doubt that!" Lois said, pounding a fist into her open palm. "Who's gonna bring it."  
>w<br>Chloe exchanged a panicked look with Kal-El. This was small time compared to Isobel but Chloe Sullivan and Clark Kent weren't supposed to be able to take most of the defensive line of Smallville High. Kal-El smirked and squinted up at the steam pipe above them, pushing she and Lois out of the way of the scalding spray, and quickly moving to do the same with the team under the cover of steam.

After everything had cleared, the team members stood up, blinked confusedly at Mandy and, dropping their bats, left out the door. Chloe frowned and hopped up. Kal-El was still sitting and he was breathing more heavily than she would have thought. Kneeling down, she touched his shoulder. Quietly, she asked, "Stupid question, but are you okay?"

He looked back up at her and she realized that, for the first time in days, that his eyes were crystal blue and no longer slightly reddened from the Kryptonite in his system. "I am fine."

"I...need a hand?"

He nodded and feigned stumbling to his feet. "Uh, Lois?"

"I'm fine Carl. Totally, great."

Kal-El rolled his eyes and whispered. "If she were not blood kin and I had not promised to refrain from maiming humans..."

"I get it," Chloe replied, turning to look at Mandy. "Huh, looks like all your boy toys left."

Kal-El smiled shakily. "It's the steam. The compound can't hold up under extreme temperatures." His grin broadened as he took the folder from Lois. "I think that the administration is going to be very interested in this."

"Oh, and probably the sheriff," Chloe added.

"Definitely, cuz," Lois finished. "So, if we're done? Can we still party because they have pizza and Jack and Coke."

"Does the pizza have banana peppers on it?"

"Yuck, no way."

Kal-El shrugged. "Then, at least we'll make the most of tonight."

Chloe met Lois at her cousin's apartment in the city that night. Kal-El had actually opted out of going to the party in favor of turning over multiple copies of the evidence to the principle and to Sheriff Adams. He'd called her from Swann's penthouse to tell her that he wasn't coming home tonight and that he might spend the weekend in the city. Officially, he was making up for the deadline he'd missed.

Unofficially, he was avoiding her. She could understand that. Kal-El had spent the last three days embarrassing the Hell out of himself for her. He definitely needed the space and that's why she was hanging out with Lois anyway.

"Ooh, hot cocoa. Thanks, Lo."

Her cousin sighed and pursed her lips as she sat down across from her. "Okay, so what's actually going on?"

"What?"

"I heard about Smallville making an idiot of himself in the cafeteria. One of the players mentioned it at the party. Also, since when do steam pipes just randomly explode on their own or can you just make a 6'3 guy stumble."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"You don't live in Smallville."

"I sure do."

"No, you don't. Uncle Gabe told me that you were staying with this Lana chick, but I asked around and she moved here a month ago. I know daddy had you under surveillance and in witness protection and then you borrowed my passport to fly to New York. Then, bam, you're no longer even living in Smallville but going to high school there. What gives?"

"Lois."

"Chloe."

Chloe sighed, "It's complicated."

"And I'm your best friend and we tell each other everything, even when we're not really dead. Where are you living?"

Chloe gulped, maybe if she admitted to one thing, Lois wouldn't prod about her abilities. She just didn't want to admit to them or think about them all that much. Lois was family and she'd love her no matter what, but she wanted her cousin and her dad to always think of her as the same Chloe Sullivan they'd always known not as whatever she was now. She just needed more time.

"Here. I have a penthouse on Sixth Avenue."

"How can you afford that?"

Chloe bit her lip. "I can't."

"So you're a trophy girlfriend?"

"No," she replied, sighing. "Clark and I are living together."

"Clark lives on a farm."

"Lois do you know how The General just can't tell you things sometimes because it's classified."

"Of course."

"Well this is one of those kinds of situations. Clark's doing some consulting for Dr. Swann of Swann communications because he's this math genius. He's supplementing everything."

"Alright, I might buy that consulting part since he was all up with the chemistry but when I last talked to you, you two were just getting back to being friends after the Luthor thing. Now you're living together?"

Chloe blushed. "It's complicated."

"Does it have to do with your sudden flight to The Big Apple?"

"Yes."

"And why you won't talk about what happened on the football field?"

"Who wants to be a big shot reporter here?" Chloe quipped. "There's a lot of stuff and it's really tangled right now and one day, I promise, it'll make sense and there will be a full story, but today is not that day. Right now, can you just be happy we're in the same city and can hang out a lot more?"

Lois nodded. "Alright, Chlo, but you know you can tell me anything, right?"

Chloe swallowed. Anything might not included the part about being a genetic freakshow with enough juice to fell an alien. "I know, Lo. Now, are we watching Keanu or are we watching Keanu?"

She found him on the roof of one of the buildings in Times Square, gazing down at the Lion King's glowing marquee. It had taken a while for Swann to help her track him down, but they'd found him eventually. He sighed when she sat down next to him but he hadn't moved. Chloe wasn't a fool, he could hear her anywhere on the planet. If he didn't want to talk, he'd be in Hong Kong by now.

"Hey, you lied."

"I decided to remain a few days longer in New York," he replied stiffly.

"I know, but you could come home."

Kal-El nodded but kept staring out into the night. "Can I?"

"No color me confused."

"The hangover is strong, Sull-I-Van. I remember everything with utter clarity and I made a fool of myself."

"Well, if I had drunken that stuff, I don't want to know what I'd have done. Everyone's off on it. You're just not immune to something."

"No, I was not 'off.' I was without my filter. I could not circumscribe my behavior. I could not curtail my feelings."

She smiled and stroked his shoulder. Frowning, when he shrugged her off. "It's not like I didn't know they were there."

"No, not those feelings," he gruffed. "I love you. You know this. I tell you this every time we are intimate. I tell you it in the way I cradle you at night. Those were not the feelings to which I was referring."

She quirked her head. "I don't understand."

He turned to her and his shoulders were hunched. "You are right. I am jealous of Clark and I am threatened by him. I know that I can never be him and I want to say that I do not wish for such a thing to come to pass, but I cannot. My mother and you love him more and I want to have what he had worse than anything. Deep down, if it would make you both love me, the way you loved him, I would perpetrate an illusion. I would bury all that I am because, although I am loathe to admit it, he is better than I am."

Chloe gaped at him. "Are you serious?"

"I often am," he replied. "Clark is the better son. He is the boy you love. He is human."

"You don't even like humans."

"I lied," Kal-El said. "I care very much for humans, for you and my mother, for the fate of this world. I would very much like to be one of them. I am proud of my heritage and my gifts, but I was not wrong. I am very lonely."

"I'm right here," Chloe said, grabbing his shoulder and holding on. "You're not alone."

"I am. There is nothing left, Sull-I-Van. There will never be anything but me. I am stranded on a world where I am one of seven billion and no one can understand that."

"Did you both always feel this way?"

He nodded. "The loneliness has only grown. At first, we were merely odd. Then we were _alien _, and now we are from a dead race. Somehow it is lonelier still for half of me is gone, although I enjoy my freedom. I am weary."

"I know, but we're just starting."

"I am weaker than I thought."

"Why? Because you got stoned when it wasn't your fault and admitted to a few deep seated phobias. Kal-El, I've failed you as a counsel because you're not getting it."

"What have I failed to understand?"

"Humans feel like you do. We get tired. We get beaten down by life. We feel lonely. Damn it! You've been in high school for a month on your own. How many happy, smiling people do you see? The cheerleaders were so neglected that they had to dope up their boyfriends to feel loved. It's not just you and it's not because you've got more character than the rest of us."

"I suppose."

"I know it's true."

Kal-El nodded. "I am ashamed about my behavior. I stole."

"You put it back...you did put it back, right?"

"Yes. I did not mean to do any of it."

"Yeah, you did. Now that you're not high, can I just say that I don't need to be pampered or showered or anything? I can't be bought, Kal-El. There isn't anything that I want from you and if you even say that I want you to be Clark I will hurt you."

He arched an eyebrow at that. "You are violent."

"I'm tough. Kal-El, do you know what I wanted most the last three days?"

"I would think my silence was it."

"No, I wanted you back. I missed how we are. I missed our banter. I missed you arguing with me. I missed my partner. I like who you are very, very much and I missed Kal-El as deeply for those three days of your personality swap as I miss my friend."

"Clark," he said, his voice full of scorn.

She nodded. "I miss my childhood friend. I was feeling empty without my lover. Can you see the difference?"

"But you do not love me. You will not say it."

"It's been a month."

"I know. I should not push, but I fear that you shall always love him more."

"I don't know if that's true," she replied.

"You do not know that it is not."

"Kal-El, you know more about me than anyone else in the world, even my family. You know about my mother."

"I am sorry for that Sull-I-Van. We were always in agreement. She was a fool to have left you behind."

She swallowed. She hated thinking about Moira. "I know, well, that's my life. People _leave _. My mother, Pete, Lana, even my dad in Gotham."

"Him."

"Yes, and you can't deny it. He wanted to go. With Lana leaving and Pete gone, I wasn't enough to keep him here. Even Clark wanted out."

"What happened with us was not related to you. Everything collapsed at once. He made a rash decision..._ we _made it."

"You wanted to leave?"

"It was a trick, but we thought we could go home. We wanted to go very badly."

"Oh."

"We were wrong or he was wrong. I don't even know anymore."

"I'm very glad you're here. I did miss you when you were tripping. Kal-El, I just meant that it's hard for me. Even if you were Clark or just a random, no baggage human guy I liked, it would be hard. I don't say those words ever. I've only used them with my dad and Lois since my mom left. You can say words like that and never mean them. My mom told it to me every day for eight years. Didn't mean that she meant it."

"When I say it, I mean it," he intoned.

"I know you do," she replied, taking his hand. "And when I say it, I want to mean it to. It won't be empty, but until then, I'm going to stay. I can't say 'I love you,' but I can say that you mean a lot to me, and I care about you, and I miss you when you're gone. It's all I have."

"And it shall suffice as always."

"I'm sorry, Kal-El. You picked someone who's emotionally stunted."

"I picked an intended who is wonderful," he replied earnestly. "Before you object, that is not the juice talking. I would believe that either way." He sighed. "Are we going to discuss this again? Despite my photographic memory, I would rather that we never discuss this again."

Chloe sighed. "Kal-El, I'll promise not to talk about the Hope diamond or the Clark Kent impression, but what happened in the cafeteria."

He blushed. "I do not wish to relive that."

"I did try and beg you to stop. Kal-El, you heard that?"

He nodded. "We both heard it. We were sick. If it is possible to explain this, I was sicker than Clark. The fever was a Kryptonian spore and it was working faster through..."

"The Kryptonian side."

"Yes, but I still heard you. I knew it was you. I would have given anything if I could have responded."

Chloe shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah. I didn't get the reception I'd hoped for."

"I am truly sorry that Clark was a fool."

"I know. Hey, I got the better deal," she said, leaning against his shoulder.

Kal-El sighed and slipped off the side of the building, hovering out of her reach so that she couldn't quite touch him. "You thought I was dying."

"I didn't, exactly. I just knew you'd never been sick before and I was really scared for you."

"And when situations are that extreme, one's true feelings are forced to the surface. What you wrote was beautiful, even if I have managed to mangle it, and it was for him. I do not know if I can compete with that."

"Does it matter?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not going anywhere for a while, considering what I can do, and neither are you. Feelings grow, Kal-El, and it's been one month. If I know you for years or even several more months, who's to say that I won't be sure some day, that I won't feel ten times for you what I do for him?"

"And who's to say that you will never feel that way. It may never come."

"I hope it does," she replied, smirking and hopping off the ledge.

He had her in his arms before she could blink. "That was not appreciated. You could have been killed."

"I knew you'd catch me," she objected. "And now you do have to touch me. You mean a lot to me, Kal-El. I don't know what my life would be like without you. Can you wait for me for a while? I didn't know it at the time, but, apparently, I was waiting for you."

"For him," he corrected, sadly. "Sull-I-Van, we shall see. You are my counsel and my partner and that remains. I promised you that with Swann and I meant it."

"Thanks."

"I can wait."

"Good then."

He sighed and headed silently through the night to Swann's penthouse. "I merely hope that it is not in vain."


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

"Kal-El, do you want more lemonade?" Martha asked, holding out the pitcher.

He smiled broadly and pushed her glass toward her, wobbling a little beside her in the porch swing as he did it. "I would, mother, it is most refreshing."

Martha smiled and poured before sitting back down herself. "You seem better."

Kal-El looked down at his glass. "I feel much improved. I am sorry for my behavior and I assure you that what I stole has been returned. It was not my intention to break any laws."

"I know you weren't thinking, sweetheart."

Kal-El stilled at the endearment but recovered quickly. "I know. It is all most disappointing. I have tried so hard for you to both trust me. I did not mean to make so many errors in judgment."

"And these things happen in Smallville," Martha conceded. "Don't worry, Chloe and I were on the case."

"And as always, I have chosen well with whom I should trust," he replied, his eyes straying down to Clark's old wristwatch on her wrist even as he reached out his fingers to encircle it.

Martha's smile stiffened. "Kal-El, we wanted to talk to you."

"No more about my Clark Kent leanings. I am most embarrassed by all of it."

"Never, Kal-El," she replied. "And I know you didn't do it to dredge up anything."

"No, I did not. If I hurt you, mother-"

She shook her head. "No, you didn't. I miss him very much."

Kal-El ducked his head and nodded. "I understand."

"But," she replied, reaching out and stroking the bangs back from his forehead. "It hurt worse to watch you pretend. It worried me for you."

He swallowed and didn't look at her. "I am fine."

"You don't ever have to pretend for either of us."

"I know that now," he replied, still avoiding her gaze.

"Do you? Kal-El, look at me."

He swallowed and turned his face up to her. "Mother, I understand. I will not try to be him again. It was cruel."

"No, it was self-defeating. I think I'm with Chloe. I must admit that you grow on people."

"Like mold," Chloe riposted, lightening the mood and elbowing Kal-El gently. "Welcome back to the land of the lucid."

"Thank you, Sull-I-Van. If I am mold, then I must confess you are like a cockroach and will not go away."

"Oh, true love," she joked, winking at him, grateful when he played into the joke.

"Can I ask you something, earnestly, Kal-El?" Martha said, leaning back on her bench.

"Yes."

"What does it mean that Chloe is your intended. I don't mean for her. She still has a choice in everything."

"Of course she does."

"But we all saw how true the depth of your feelings are. What does it mean for you?"

Kal-El clenched his hands. "Even I do not fully understand it. I think that things did not transpire as they typically do for my people. The split between Clark and myself is part of that, the fact that we chose different intendeds. But I do not think that human and Kryptonian customs match, exactly. I think that we were more sensitive to acts of physical affection. We rarely showed it where I came from. It was discouraged."

Chloe's eyes widened. "I kissed you the day we met."

He nodded. "Yes, that coupled with what you are, what I recognized in you. I believe it may have precipitated some of the more obsessive aspects of my bond to you. It is not that I do not choose you, I do. I believe, however, that things moved faster than my people would have done it."

"Oh."

"Yes."

"Kal-El, if Chloe...if you two somehow agree to only be partners, to have her serve as the monitor for the Fortress, what happens to the bond?"

"It does not fade from my end. I merely learn to accept the limitations of our relationship and to move on."

"Can you?" Martha prodded.

He shook his head. "I cannot, but I will not emotionally blackmail you, Sull-I-Van." He smiled sadly. "I am used to loneliness. Ironically, it is my constant companion."

"Kal-El-"

"It shall be alright, I promise you. What is the expression? Mother henning? You two worry about me far too much." He sighed and set his glass down on the table. "I have survived many things and shall endure many more. I will be fine. Just-"

"What?"

"Let us never mention this week again. It is far from my proudest moment," he finished, standing up. "If you will excuse me for a moment." And with that, he headed inside.

Martha shook her head. "I wish he wasn't so resigned to everything. Things take time."

"Maybe they don't on Krypton," Chloe finished. "Maybe they just fall hard or not at all."

Martha sighed and looked through the screen door. Kal-El was clearly X-raying the old oven in the kitchen, waiting to see if the pie had finished. Some things never changed, after all. "Then that sounds just like us, doesn't it?"

Chloe nodded and looked back to the fearsome would be overlord licking his lips in anticipation of cinnamon goodness. "Yeah, it really does.


End file.
